CO129-543-9 Hong Kong University- technical education 28-2-1933 - 7-11-1933 — Page 23

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20.

21.

The opening sentence of G.R. Para. 57 attributes to

local employers of engineering labour the suggestion that

the University's course in Mechanical Engineering might

with advantage be made more practical. We have just

remarked in Para. 12, above, that the Engineering courses

of this University are already more "practical" than

those of most other Universities.

The University is not

a factory, and students cannot obtain here "practical"

experience under commercial conditions. Beyond the

courses in the Workshop, the Mechanics Laboratory, the

the Materials Laboratories Prime Movers Laboratory, the Electrical Laboratory, no

further work of a "practical" character can very well

be provided.

But in any case the business of this or any other

University is to provide, not "practical" engineering,

but a training in those fundamental principles of pure

and applied science upon which the enlightened practice

of engineering depends. This is stated quite clearly

and fairly in G.R. Paras. 38 and 39.

22.

SECTION B.

Criticisms of the Value of our Graduates in Engineering.

The principal criticisms of the value of our

Engineering Graduates, contained in the Government Report,

are quoted from Messrs. John Swire & Sons, Ltd.

As recorded in G.R. Para. 32, this firm was, in 1909,

enthusiastically in favour of the founding of a Univer-

sity in Hong Kong, and gave a generous donation of £40,000 to establish a department of Engineering.

No mention was

then made of a Technical or Trade School. Also in 1912

the University Court declared that "higher education in

applied science" was to be one of the main objects of the

P.T.0.

2.3